Update on COVID19 in School

I hope that you are all keeping well. As you know, our school is experiencing a large number of cases of COVID19 in our school. At this time of writing, we have had almost 60 confirmed cases between staff and pupils, and I'm sure that you will join me in wishing everyone well. I shared the response I received from the HSE when we had 30 confirmed cases last week. It reached the media and I was interviewed by a number of outlets. I hope that I represented our school well and thank you again to those who sent me messages. I have called on the Department of Education to reintroduce contact tracing for schools, and, to provide proper ventilation measures in all of our classrooms.

I am sure many of you have been worried about the spread of the virus in the school and attendances have demonstrated this. As families, we have to do what is right for our own families, and you have my full support. Our staff are putting up school work on to our education platforms and allowing books to be sent home. While it isn't a replacement for being in school, we hope that it will allow for our pupils to keep up to date as far as possible with the learning in school.

This week the antigen test programme started in primary schools and we have already sent out information to a number of families since yesterday. Later this week, the government will be making recommendations on a number of other things that will affect our pupils. I will keep you up to date as soon as we hear anything.

In the meantime, please err on the side of caution if your child has any symptoms of COVID19, even if you think it might just be a headcold. We understand how difficult it is to have to take time off work but we really need to make sure that we keep our classes open and it is proving very difficult to secure substitute teachers and SNAs at the moment. Never before has the "safe" part of our motto meant more so please keep safe.